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    • VA apologizes after employees leave accidental voicemails for vet
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    VA apologizes after employees leave accidental voicemails for vet

    Online Niel Posted on

    The Department of Veterans Affairs is apologizing to a veteran who received a voicemail from a facility in El Paso, Texas, in which VA employees can be heard speculating that the veteran was seeking to keep his 100 percent disability rating when one of says: “It’s all about money.”

    “The VA deeply apologizes to this veteran and we are reaching out to him immediately,” VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes told Task & Purpose on Tuesday. “The lack of care and compassion shown by these employees is unacceptable and we are urgently investigating this incident and will take swift and appropriate action. Veterans deserve respect and the best care our nation has to offer, and we at the VA will never accept anything less from our employees.”

    It is not known exactly when the call took place. An audio recording of the voicemail was the first posted on Instagram on Monday. The name of the patient and the name of the El Paso VA employee who called were both redacted from the record. The VA employee apparently didn’t know she failed to hang up after she left a short message asking the veteran to call her back.

    In the brief conversation, a male VA employee, who has not been identified, asks the employee if the veteran needs to come in for a lung exam, prompting the woman to check the patient’s diagnosis.

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    Then the male employee says, “Yeah, it’s all about the money. Trust me, I know that.”

    The woman responds by saying the man is “100%”, a likely reference to his disability rating. She adds that he’s “probably trying to keep it.”

    “There’s so much going on in the VA that he thinks he’s going to lose his disability,” says the VA employee. “Then again, he probably wants travel payments too.”

    “Oh, yes,” the VA employee replies. “I heard people were upset about it. Their travel payment was incorrect (distorted audio) and I’m like, “I had nothing to do with it. Calm.'”

    Task & Purpose was unable to reach the Instagram user who posted the audio of the conversation.

    So far in 2024, the VA has provided $187 billion in benefits to 6.7 million veterans and survivors, according to the VA. The percentage of living veterans receiving disabled veterans also increased from 18 percent in 2014 to 33 percent today.

    But like any other organization, there have been times when the VA has faced public scrutiny and criticism. A VA employee in Georgia has been suspended indefinitely without pay after it slammed a 73-year-old veteran in 2022. The following year, the VA claims processors he told NBC News they were struggling to keep up with the new cases after PACT Act extended benefits for veterans who have been exposed to toxins.

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